#and thus begins a new one

[d8tl55c]

[doberbutts]

[mineralboa]

ignitus the beloved..

a silly looking spyro...

[hopeinthebox]

tagged by the gorgeous and fabulous @cordiallyfuturedwight and @aprylynn for february's roundup:

tagging the usual music favs: @jiminsproof @thvinyl @jimin-gaon @visionsofgideontheninth @spicyclematis @kimchokejin @jihopesjoint @monismochi plus @kimtaegis for the amy macdonald of it all 💜 and also you, dear reader. MWAH

[ofbardsandmen]

greetings fellow genshin enthusiasts and fanatics!! once again, i'm generously presenting and offering my most beloved mondstadt character spotify playlists, free of charge and yours to consume, if you will.

[novantinuum]

Anyways, I declare this era as Steven Universe Fixation 2: More Fun, Less Bullshit

[elkkiel]

okay so i listened to the summoning and take me back to eden (it autoplayed so i figured i might as well listen it to it) and. wow. not what i expected at all! i'm a big fan of songs shifting genres and it looks like they do that for all of their songs so thats really cool!!

i would love to listen to any more reccomendations you have, since typically i enjoy music that's faster paced. i really really liked the summoning though, and the lyrics for take me back to eden. wow. like. WOW. i did research into their lore and it bangs so damn hard

thanks for the rec :)

(also, sorry about the a/b/o stuff with other fandoms :( i love talking about it for pwp reasons and socioeconomic theorizing reasons so my blog is a safe place for that stuff if you want :))

I am absolutely elated that you like what you've heard so far!!!! And also so so sorry for the rabbit hole you're going to fall down with these guys

I would honestly recommend the whole Take Me Back to Eden album as a new listener—I looped it for practically a month straight when I first found them haha. It's a great sampler of their range and by far the most refined, cohesive release of their main 3 LPs.  

Beyond just getting you to listen to a whole album in one sitting, here's some of their popular songs/singles:

(Btw, there's a TON of good live recordings for some of these as well; they sound just as good, if not better, on stage as they do in-studio)

Alkaline

This is the one with the sexy banner/mic stand stroking lol. It's a sensual, synth-y intro leading into a hell of a headbanger with chuggy guitars

The Summoning

Mentioning this for the live performances in particular. Vessel goes CRAZY with his live vocals, there's a huge drum solo in that atmospheric part, and a LOT of on-stage shenanigans to be had. It's the song that made them blow up HARD, and for a good reason.

Rain (ty @tonguetyd for the rec lol, here's a last-minute addition)

This is another great sample of Vessel's vocals, especially in the intro. It starts slower with the solo piano but gets really powerful in the second half. A personal and fan-favourite for sure!

Hypnosis

If you vibe with Alkaline, you'll vibe with Hypnosis. It's like ultra-concentrated, pathetic sopping wet paper towel levels of yearning with groovy, heavy breakdowns

The Offering

A setlist staple that'll make you want to dive headfirst into the nearest mosh pit. This is a good example of the music tying into the lore/story behind the band as well, if you're interested in that kind of lore analysis

Jaws

An oldie but a fan favourite! It might just be me but it kinda gives me Bring Me the Horizon vibes, so if you like them then you'll probably like Jaws as well

Vore

Yes, it's called Vore. Welcome to Sleep Token lol. It's one of their heaviest songs with lots of harsh vocals (Vessel really shows off his higher range here) and super groovy, dynamic instrumentals. Personal fave tbh, it's at the top of my Spotify repeats playlist

And finally, the lore 🥰🥰 I've only been here a short time and still have yet to discover a lot of their story, but here's an overview of the band history and lore, as well as an in-depth interview with Vessel from 2017. They like to add a lot of Easter eggs to their releases (they created a whole ass alphabet/cypher to go along with Take Me Back to Eden), and the fans go WILD with theories and analysis!

Anyways I'm gonna cut off the infodump there haha. Please let me know what you think and if you run across anything else (songs, lore, etc.) that you liked!!

(Also ty for the omega solidarity 😌 the sleep token fandom is so much fun and still exists in the same weirdo-freak realm as dtblr omegaverse-enthusiasts lol. There's just far less *actual* omegaverse here.

I've been spoiled by the sheer amount of a/b/o content and normalization in the dteam fandom that normal amounts of fandom a/b/o feel like total deprivation. If you ever feel like sharing I'm always down for theories and headcanons too btw. It's such a fun, complex trope and I love to see what others think)

[spiritcc]

at this point I don't even know if tag fragmentation in the general russian holmes space is worth addressing. a few years ago I successfully kept the ancient customs intact because I wrote a post so deranged and pretentious it displeased people into doing what I wanted but nowadays what's the point in making a grand return of being terminally online if yall kinda right

[aenslem]

you know, after stargate universe rewatch, rewatching star trek voyager is so funny, cos you just see the way things would be in a real world if you were suddenly thrown to another galaxy with people who don't know how to do shit and only handful of staff who know something to save your ass, and how things are in an idealistic world where there's no money and everyone's happy as long as they join federation

[whathasangramainyudonewrong]

Wrong #400

We’d planned to have a little celebration for day 400, but the guest of honour didn’t show up

According to the note he left, he instead…

…

… Had a date?

[digitalgirls]

i think i’m extra nervous for this upcoming year. usually i’m just meh about the new year, but i foresee that im gonna have to make some pretty big decisions and take major steps in my life from this year moving forward and it’s scary im not gonna lie

[chipjrwibignaturals]

ALSO. spotify wrapped btw.

[goodplace-janet]

[Image: a selfie of the blogger standing next to the letter C in a mural. The C contains an image of a church and a cemetery, with the sun rising over the mountains in the background. The blogger is wearing a puffy black coat, their hair down, and sunglasses on their head. /end ID]

i survived the trip home!! closed roads due to snow made it much longer than it could have been, but we made it.

after leaving my grandpa's house, i took a tiny walk through a ~historic downtown~ and checked out some gold rush era rural California architecture

[humblemooncat]

Oops. Didn’t see that one, I’ll do a different card pick!

00.  the fool  :  what are your muse’s thoughts on new beginnings ? does it frighten them or  excite them ?

No worries at all! <3

Ooh, this is an interesting one. You see, Ki'to really did set out on a Fool's Journey of his own. I hadn't intended it as such, but there are so many parallels I can find between his journey and that of the Fool's Journey through the Major Arcana. (I might even do a post on that at some point. It could be fun.)

The thought of a new beginning, stepping away from a home he'd spent 30 years in, was frightening. He had no real experience with combat, and only knew some minor healing spells due to always playing medic for his older siblings. So, picking up his father's old bow, saying goodbye to the life he'd known, and throwing caution to the wind to set out on a journey took him so much time to mentally prepare for.

So much so that he overthought, about all the millions of things that could go wrong.

It was Ki'li who gave him the push to finally go. His ever-quiet little brother told him in his own way that the Elementals wished for his assistance, and that Gridania held the key. And, not one to let family down, he finally decided to resolve himself and go.

Each new beginning following that was easier than the last, though still frightening in its own right. And after a while that anxiety he felt turned to excitement, the buzz of life upon his first view of Sharlayan affirmed that much.

Though he always settled in afterwards, the first step is always the hardest.

[outeremissary]

🌙👑❇️ for Balthazar please?

🌙 MOON - what is your oc's greatest wish? how far are they willing to go for it?

Balthazar would define his greatest wish as being powerful on his own terms, able to do anything he wanted without consequence or being beholden to anyone. Wealthy with political power, maybe, or better: possessing fearsome arcane ability to make people afraid to cross him. Maybe even eternal life, right...? He's willing to go a long way for it: he never in a million years would have gambled his life in some shitty backwater doing some ridiculous, stupid, dangerous adventurer thing without the temptation of that sweet, sweet title at the end. Stupid, risky bullshit to possess or preserve power is him all the way down, no matter how many times it gets him hurt. It always just feels like this is the time the gamble will pay off without loss.

Of course, if you want the secret answer of god... Perhaps, deep down, what he wants more than any of that is the chance at a peaceful, ordinary life he was robbed of by the circumstances of his birth. The chance to just be human and live life without worrying about whether other people see you or some nameless ancestor in your place.

👑 CROWN - what does your oc want to be remembered as? why?

Well, he certainly doesn't want to be remembered as an aasimar. I'd say he wants to be remembered for something he did himself, whether it's good or bad. A legendary ruler or powerful archmage would work. Or the one whose hubris or tyranny instated a new age of horror. Also fine. He doesn't have any truly concrete thoughts on his legacy, but there's definitely appeal to being something truly infamous. He would absolutely love to have the reputation Areelu Vorlesh enjoys.

The why is pretty simple. He just loves to make a scene.

❇️ SPARKLE - what is their most prized possession? what do they value?

Hm, an interesting question, because I think possessions are of surprisingly little value to Balthazar. He's lost almost everything he owns more than once in his life, and that kind of reduced the sentimental value of objects for him. I suppose his most prized possession is be whatever his favorite piece of clothing or jewelry is at the moment- a status that can be rather ephemeral. At the beginning of Kingmaker, it was probably a doublet embellished with golden embroidery that he managed to hang on to over the many, many months of wandering after fleeing Absalom. If he'd traveled any further he probably would have had to sell it as well. It was the most valuable thing he still had. Over time the token given to him by Nyrissa also becomes very valuable to him- he has it on his person practically all the time after her death. Nothing has sentimental value quite like the memory of a worthy rival, right?

(And if something, say, befell Tristian, as has been known to happen, I'd say that without question the most important possession would be Tristian's holy symbol.)

[rxttenfish]

canon is very very fucking mean about miranda and i really wish it would stop that